F&I

JMsolutions and AutoTrader.com Kick Off Digital Dealer Conference with Workshop

April 15, 2008
• by Staff

Deerfield Beach, Fla. — JMsolutions and AutoTrader.com have joined forces to present an educational workshop to help auto dealers successfully sell vehicles online. “Internet Sales Success…Getting it Right!” will be held on Monday, April 21, from 12 p.m. until 3 p.m., prior to the start of the 4th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., April 21-23.

This pre-conference workshop will cover: stocking the right vehicles for quick Internet sales, merchandising them appropriately, and using effective customer relationship management (CRM) processes to turn leads into lifetime sales and service customers.

”With consumers increasingly looking to the Internet for purchasing big ticket items such as automobiles, dealers need to be prepared by having the right inventory marketed online in an appealing fashion,” said Barone. “And, with the technology that’s available today, leads should not be lost. Prospective customers can now be tracked and target marketed to bring them back to the store.”

“Internet Sales Success…Getting it Right!” opens a new view into the world of Internet marketing. Workshop attendees will be provided with information that they can immediately begin to implement upon their return to the dealership.

“It’s not just about your company being in the number one spot on the search engines anymore,” said Martin. “Selling successfully online has become a much more sophisticated marketing process. In order to make selling work in today’s competitive environment, dealers need to be better educated on how to take advantage of today’s available technology to implement the most current and proven best practices.”

Two additional workshops during the conference, both on April 22 from 2:45 p.m. - 4 p.m., will be presented by JMsolutions and DMEautomotive, a JMsolutions and DME Holdings LLC company and multi-channel automotive marketing provider. “The Unfair Advantage” by Randy Barone will identify the largest opportunities for profitability in dealerships. “Managing the Customer Journey Lifecycle” by Curtis DeGroote, director of research and development for DMEautomotive, will offer an automated method for centrally managing communications between dealership departments for optimal customer service.

There is much the sales team can do to reduce customers’ wait time and create more opportunities for F&I, but clear instructions and expectations are critical to the success of any attempt to change your dealership’s deeply entrenched processes.